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Matthew Vaughn tries to breathe new life into a super-hero franchise which under the able direction of Bryan singer was promising to turn into one of the biggest movie franchises because of its rich and varied source material, died an almost agonizing death at the hands of Brett Ratner. There was an attempt to resuscitate it with the enigmatic Hugh Jackman and his spin-off Wolverine Origins movie but the results were less than satisfactory.

Matthew Vaughn has had somewhat of a hit track record; his previous Kick-Ass was indeed that – it kicked Major Ass! And stardust was a fun take on a fairy-tale genre. With the story credits to Bryan Singer Matthew Vaughn delivers a blockbuster worthy of its predecessors (1 and 2).

The movie is essentially a prequel to the X-Men franchise which traces back to how Xavier and Magneto came to what they were. The story traces the origins of the Mutant Vs Humans conundrum and packs a serious punch in the acting department.

The earlier ( or is it the later considering this is the prequel) X-Men movies had thespians like Patrick Stewart ( Charles Xavier ) and Sir Ian McKellan (Magneto) in its lead roles and it is only right that modern day acting protégés James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland ) and Michael Fassbender ( Hunger) are to take over from them. Both of then doing such perfect justice to their roles that it is hard to imagine anyone else but them being suitable to essay that role.

The movie benefits from excellent casting choices. McAvoy and Fassbender are great. Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw is excellent and drops a major Story-Origins spoiler which took me by surprise (cause I am not a comic book loving nerd! ) . Nicholas Hoult (About a Boy) is charming as the young Beast, January Jones (Mad Men) is sexy, seductive and scary as Emma Frost, rising star and Oscar Nominee Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) as the young Raven/Mystique is good but not slinky enough for my liking ( I mean no one does full-blue-body-paint justice like Rebecca Romijn!!) also the host of other itsy-bitsy mutant characters are well chosen and have a ready chemistry to blend with the stellar cast.

The Screenplay is excellent, the dialogues witty and delivered with a tongue-in-cheek fashion and are a whole lot of fun (Kinky!, You know what they say about big feet)

Two thumbs up to the Very Special Guest appearance by the crowd-favorite Adamantium infused super-hero and a very very VERY special appearance by Rebecca Romijn (tell me I wasn’t the only one who noticed!). Also I am absolutely certain I saw a young storm in the cerebro sequence.

Overall an excellent movie and a fun time spent at the cinema, only wish there was a little more action and some more mutant options thrown into the already lavish buffet spread.

One parting thought though – Matthew Vaughn might have done too good a job with this movie. I mean the movie ties up the beginning to the original X-men so perfectly that it does not really leave much room to add new dimensions to take the story/franchise forward. Oh well here is to Matthew Vaughn and his KickAss-2 and to the faithful Hollywood producers who know how to milk a franchise dry – so there is hope after all!